You're reading: Lavrov: Putin’s visit to China to be central political event in bilateral relations in 2014

Preparations for the Chinese visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin will be the focal point of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's trip to China.

“We believe that the upcoming visit of the Russian president will
become this year’s major political event in Russian-Chinese relations,
and its outcome will be an important step toward a closer
Russian-Chinese partnership,” Lavrov said in an interview with China
Daily ahead of his visit to China.

“I think it is still premature to go into any details. I can only say
that together with our Chinese colleagues we will spare no effort in
preparing for the meeting of our leaders. These are the issues that will
be brought into focus during talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi,” the
Russian minister said.

“During my visit to China, my colleague Wang Yi and I intend to
engage in an in-depth exchange of views on a broad range of current
global and regional issues, including the situation in Syria, the
Iranian nuclear program, the situation on the Korean Peninsula, as well
as that in Afghanistan in light of the presidential elections that took
place in the country on April 5,” Lavrov said.

“Our two countries have coinciding or similar approaches to the
majority of international problems and are ready to further harmonize
their positions,” he added.

“We intend to devote particular attention to cooperation within the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization. We aim to synchronize the efforts to
ensure further development of the SCO, one of the key elements of
economic growth and strengthened security in Central Asia,” he said.

“Discussion of the complex situation in Ukraine has also been put on
the agenda. We appreciate Beijing’s measured and impartial stance on the
Ukrainian crisis, as well as China’s manifest understanding of all its
manifold aspects, including the historic ones,” Lavrov said.

China is Russia’s major economic partner, he said. “According to the
figures for the last year, despite the unfavorable trends in the world
economy we managed to keep our trade volume high. In fact, it reached
$88.8 billion,” Lavrov said.

“There is also an increase in our mutual investments. We are
enhancing our energy cooperation and implementing strategic arrangements
on increasing Russian oil supplies to the People’s Republic of China.
In addition, China has engaged in a gas production project on the
Russian Arctic shelf,” he said.

Tight cooperation on the international arena is also an important
aspect of Russian-Chinese strategic partnership, he said. “Our countries
advocate a more just and democratic polycentric world order based on
fundamental principles of international law and the central coordinating
role of the UN. It is pivotal that in today’s complex and unpredictable
global context we understand and respect each other’s interests and
concerns,” Lavrov said.

“Russia and China attach great importance to cooperation within
multilateral formats, including the UN, G20, BRICS, the SCO and the
Russia-India-China trilateral format (RIC), prioritizing enhanced
efficiency of responses to global challenges and threats and promotion
of sustainable development,” he said.

Russia and China have been cooperating dynamically in the
humanitarian sphere, he said, noting that “the Year of Chinese Tourism
in Russia concluded with success, and on March 28 a new important
project was launched in St. Petersburg, the Year of Friendly Youth
Exchanges that are to be held in the two countries simultaneously in
2014-15.”